Question: What changes in 911 center technology have you seen in the last 20 years?
Answer: Twenty years ago we were working to solve the problem of how to route 911 calls in a complex geopolitical environment. The result was enhanced 911 that used the caller’s address as a key to route the call to the correct public safety answering point (PSAP) and as an additional lifesaving feature displayed the address with the call. Getting accurate routing on close to 100 percent of the calls with the front door address was an achieved goal. About the time the voters of Washington state agreed that Enhanced 911 should be statewide, with a tax package to make it happen, wireless cellular service hit the streets. It took years of battling with the FCC to get requirements in place that the wireless carriers would route the calls to the correct PSAP and supply the caller’s location.
In the same time frame we needed to come up with ways to integrate private phone systems and accommodate huge changes in the technology and policies of the telecommunications industry as it was to a large degree deregulated with never previously considered ideas like number portability being implemented. Setup time for a 911 call was about 15 seconds from the last number dialed to a ring at the PSAP. We redesigned the network to reduce that to about six seconds and added dual-route diversity for virtually all calls with no down time. The evolving of the communications industry saw a huge growth in Internet capabilities and when companies started selling voice over Internet protocol services this time the FCC was quick to act to require effective 911 service. We had about nine months to do what had taken 10 years for wireless.
Outside of the technology issues and maybe the biggest change in the last 20 years is how 911 has become an absolute expected service. In the minds of the public, it is anticipated, and in the minds of those who are dispatched to assist, it has become the glue that holds the system together. 911 has become a public safety discipline unto itself, a full partner with police, fire and medical. Twenty years ago the technologies of today’s PSAPs from the 911 systems, to computer-aided dispatch (CAD), to multiband trunked radio systems with radio over Internet protocol were science fiction, and today we have professionals in the PSAPs who use, and manage, them 24 hours a day.
It appears that in the future technology will be driving all PSAP functions. What do you see both short term and long term for technological impacts to 911 centers?
The tools that you see in the hands of the public are the first clue to the future. I have an iPod that does more in the palm of my hand easier and faster than the 5-year-old computer on my desk. The iPod accepts voice commands and will take dictation, plus it is not a bad phone. 911 is moving to accommodating the deaf and hard of hearing by moving from TTYs to mobile text devices. Text-to-speech and speech-to-text will be common along with not having to move a mouse when a voice command will do. Graphic interfaces with tools like drag and drop, voice command and video from the caller to the PSAP are short term. Long term we'll see the integration of all kinds of data from associated sources ranging from the medical community to insurance companies to the response process, with the PSAP being the integration point all aimed at improving the capability to provide the best possible outcome for the caller.
Go to Emergency Management to read more from the interview with Bob Oenning.
